Tag Archives: deploy

Why the Cloud Isn’t a ‘Capital’ Idea

Leave a reply

Decision making in business is often a slow, sometimes laborious process. Working in IT, the decision being made is just the start. Traditionally you then had to buy the kit, deploy and finally roll it out to the community of users. Months (or more) could pass before a chosen strategy came to fruition. I imagine a number of you are already grimacing in frustration at the thought…

This is one of the major incentives of the cloud. Things can move quickly; there’s scalability in a way we’d always dreamed of having.

Imagine your typical dedicated server stack. You make the decisions about the servers, storage and networking and then use this configuration for the following three to five years. During this time, you might need to add some memory, upgrade disk drives and at some point find there’s a pressing need for a significant increase in capacity. You add more servers, and then have to juggle resources when for significant periods of time you perhaps don’t need them. It comes with the territory.

Here cloud is being hailed as a panacea for scalability concerns. It makes possible, and painless, rapid expansion and contraction of capacity for spikes in sales, web traffic or whatever other facet of the business you need to support. This much is clear to anyone following the IT industry in the last year or two.

But the benefits become particularly interesting in the murky world of financial control of IT resources. To become more OpEx than CapEx focussed is an outcome that will see most CFOs biting your hand off. The immediate cost reductions associated with cloud are often debated and it is possible that moving to the cloud may not produce savings, rather it provides a better way to manage costs and to charge uses for what they actually consume. Another consideration is that the actual process of assessing and planning the transition may itself identify areas for cost savings.

Cloud helps deliver better control of expenditure, and when it comes to future resource planning, you can strategise around the provisioning and de-provisioning of resources as required. Not every investment needs to lead to the painful sweating of equipment to recoup value.

This level of transparency and scalability enables better re-distribution of IT spend across the business. For IT teams it may mean an escape from having to go cap in hand for further projects. If nothing else, the exercise of evaluating the costs savings that could be achieved may help lead to a fuller understanding and better management of the infrastructure – be that cost-per-mailbox or the cost-per-app-user. For IT organisations that make the transition to using the cloud, or operating their internal infrastructure in a ‘cloud-like’ way, there is the opportunity to implement processes to charge their users (business units) for their services on a pay-per-use basis – further helping the move to an OpEx cost model.

Of course, out with old and in with the new requires bold steps. And you may not wish to rush down this road quickly. But the flexibility of a private cloud should certainly be appealing and the potential for a thorough cost-evaluation exercise makes absolute sense for the business.

Source

No Need For a Cloud of Confusion

2 Replies

It may sound like a PR ploy, but “cloud computing” truly is a different way of using technology resources, and more firms are adopting it.

If your head hasn’t been lost up in the cirrus or cumulus, you’ve probably heard of cloud computing over the last few years.

“The cloud” has figured prominently in President Obama’s technology initiatives, in the business plans of familiar tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft, and even in a New Yorker cartoon last month — depicting a parachutist struggling to use a laptop.

It’s also been the occasional butt of skeptics, such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

“It’s databases and operating systems and memory and microprocessors and the Internet. And all of a sudden, it’s none of that — it’s ‘the cloud,’” Ellison said — in a speech you can still pull down from the YouTube section of the cloud.

Oracle now offers “Premier Cloud Services,” but Ellison had a point. For a decade, Oracle had rented its enterprise-resource-management system to corporate customers who didn’t want to invest in their own hardware, software and IT personnel — a key advantage of using the cloud. So had other firms that pioneered “software as a service,” one of the buzz phrases of the cloud era.

Not a ploy

Still, that doesn’t mean cloud computing is a nebulous idea or marketing ploy. Advocates such as Patrick Harr, Hewlett-Packard’s vice president of global cloud strategy, argue that recent technological and business developments make “the cloud” a truly different way of using computer resources.

“The cloud is the great equalizer,” Harr said in an interview. It offers companies and consumers access to user-friendly services that might otherwise require large expenses for software, hardware and training. And that access can often be available from anywhere on the Internet.

For businesses, it also offers access to resources that otherwise would be unthinkable.

Harr said DreamWorks Studios uses HP’s cloud services for rendering films — the hugely data-intensive process that brings together all of the digital elements of a full-scale animation. Even with powerful computers, rendering a segment of a movie can take days, he said.

“If I’m generating a new movie, I only do this once or twice a year,” Harr said. “As a company, I don’t want to go out and buy thousands of servers for that.” Thanks to HP’s cloud services, DreamWorks doesn’t have to.

If you are still confused, here are answers to some basic questions.

What is cloud computing?

Ellison isn’t wrong: It’s databases, operating systems, memory, microprocessors and the Internet, all rolled into a package. But with the cloud, the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts.

Harr said two key advances distinguish cloud computing from earlier versions of remote hardware and software rental and mark “a fundamental technological shift.”

One is “multi-tenancy,” in which many businesses can take simultaneous advantage of a huge pool of powerful resources such as HP’s tens of thousands of servers. A small business might just require a tiny portion of resources — perhaps just a section of a single server that hosts a dozen “virtual machines,” each emulating a stand-alone computer. A large business might use hundreds of servers.

The other key is automation of crucial tasks, such as responding to a sudden need for extra resources. With in-house technology, a retailer might be overwhelmed by a holiday surge in demand, or a media company by a video that goes viral and generates millions of hits. With the cloud, extra resources can be deployed rapidly and seamlessly.

Who offers cloud services?

The list is long and growing. It’s headed by giants such as Google, HP and Amazon, but includes niche providers as well — sometimes via partnerships between software and hardware companies.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was in Malvern, Pa., last week to launch a new Microsoft Technology Center, a 17,500-square-foot facility that includes a server farm and is part of the software giant’s cloud-centric strategy.

“When you use a cloud-based service, there’s nothing you have to install or deploy,” said Karen Del Vescovo, Microsoft’s district general manager. “This provides you access to the information and the backup from anywhere.”

Microsoft says 70 percent of its software developers are working on cloud-related products and services — a figure that will rise to 90 percent within a year.

Who uses the cloud?

Consumers who use Gmail or other Web-based mail services are essentially cloud users. So are interactive gamers or people who use photo services like SnapFish or Flickr, which provide anywhere, anytime access to your digital pictures, even at Grandma’s.

For now, old habits and computers still bundled with e-mail and document software may keep consumers using traditional programs. But small businesses increasingly see value in the cloud as a way to control information-technology expenses — and headaches.

Swedesboro, N.J.-based L&L Kiln Manufacturing Inc. and a sister company use Intuit’s QuickBase for database services, Batchbook for contact management, and Google’s Gmail and Google Docs for e-mail and document management, all at an annual cost of about $3,600.

L&L President Stephen Lewicki said the services have improved workflow and collaboration. But he also says much of the benefit is indirect and intangible — including a reduction in technology hassles at businesses where few employees have high-tech skills.

“There are certain things that I can do in the cloud that are much more efficient,” Lewicki said. “And it never breaks, so I never have to worry about it.”

Source

Top Ten Cloud Computing Myths

2 Replies

Like many disruptive, evolving technologies, cloud computing is going through a phase characterized by opposites: hype and exaggeration on one side, and fear and skepticism on the other. How do you determine what’s really going to work for your organization? Separating the myths from the facts of cloud computing is a good place to start. Let’s take a look at the top 10 cloud computing myths as we see them, and the realities behind those myths that can help you make intelligent decisions about the cloud.

Myth 10: My Data Center Is Virtualized So I Already Have the Cloud

Virtualization is a key component of the cloud, but cloud computing is about much more than virtualization. The ability to deploy and scale infrastructure rapidly and programmatically, on-demand, on a pay-as-you-go basis – that’s what really defines the cloud and what is difficult if not impossible to achieve using traditional virtualization alone.

Myth 9: Cloud Application Performance Is Hampered by Network Latency and I/O Bottlenecks

Both can be issues, but the degree to which they affect performance depends on your cloud providers, network providers, applications, and cloud deployment architecture. A carefully architected deployment can often avoid these issues.

Myth 8: I Won’t Have Full Ownership of My Cloud-Based Data

You can have full data ownership if you choose your cloud provider carefully and pay attention to contract terms. Data ownership is sometimes an issue with consumer social networking sites, but it is much less likely to be an issue with an infrastructure provider. Make sure you negotiate contracts that give you full ownership of your data, including the right to choose the data storage location if necessary.

Myth 7: My Data Won’t Be Secure in the Cloud

Reputable cloud providers know that any serious security breaches will receive widespread publicity and damage their businesses. That’s why public cloud provider security is often better than that of even most large enterprise data centers. Customers should examine contracts and SLAs carefully to ensure that they meet their organizations’ data location, control, and security requirements. Sensitive data should be encrypted in transit and at rest. And be aware that security and regulatory compliance are two different things: Your data may be secure in the cloud, but you may need to wait until regulations governing your business allow cloud-based solutions before you can move it.

Myth 6: I’ll Get Locked in

This depends on the service you choose. Start by asking the question: What if I need to move? Make sure your contract includes detailed provisions for a fast, smooth exit. Deploy portable cloud configurations that can be migrated quickly from one provider to another. And take advantage of deployment tools that enable quick migration and configuration.

Myth 5: The Cloud Means There’s No Role Left for IT

Let’s face it: Most organizations will need help from IT to choose, configure, integrate, and monitor cloud services properly and migrate applications and data to the cloud. The cloud in turn can help make IT much more agile and responsive in delivering the applications and capabilities its internal customers require. With fewer IT resources required for the nuts and bolts of infrastructure, IT has more time to spend on the strategic aspect of its role: delivering business value to the organization.

Myth 4: Cloud Computing Is for SMBs, Not Enterprises

Nope – not true. Recent studies of RightScale customers show the biggest growth in cloud usage comes from enterprises. Many cloud providers have geared up for the scalability, security, and customization needs of enterprise customers, and it’s paying off. Larger companies are using the cloud for a variety of applications ranging from highly scalable brand websites to social applications, grid computing for scientific research, media processing, employee collaboration, and a number of other web-based business and consumer services.

Myth 3: Deploying Cloud Applications Is a Snap

Not always. Most IT organizations will find there’s work involved in configuring, deploying, integrating, and managing cloud-based applications. However, more and more powerful deployment and management tools have become available to streamline and automate much of the process. With the right knowledge and tools and the use of best practices, deploying and scaling applications that meet your organization’s requirements can be relatively painless.

Myth 2: The Cloud Is Always Less Expensive

That depends on several factors: network and bandwidth requirements, special hardware needs, the cloud service and application that are being considered, and, of course, what you’re comparing the cloud to on the other side. When comparing the cost of a cloud deployment, make sure you take into account the costs of power, cooling, administration, staffing, and data center real estate for deploying the same application in-house or in traditional hosting. Don’t forget to consider the “intangible” benefits of increased agility and responsiveness that a cloud deployment often provides and the business advantages and revenue that can result from a quickly realized opportunity.

Myth 1: Low Cost Is the Cloud’s Chief Attraction

Low cost is a definite advantage of the cloud, but for many organizations, agility, scalability, time-to-market, and fast access to high-quality infrastructure present more compelling benefits. Cloud computing allows many businesses to get up and running fast with a new technology or scale computing power to handle peak loads much more rapidly, efficiently, and cost-effectively than they could possibly do in-house. For many businesses, the cloud provides access to infrastructure at a quantitative scale and level of operational excellence that is otherwise not attainable.

Whatever you think about cloud computing, there’s no question it will continue to grow, evolve, and address issues of security, compliance, and cost. Make sure you understand the realities of the cloud, the benefits it can bring to your organization, and where you can get started quickly before making a decision. By diving in and deploying early, where it makes sense, you can build the expertise you need to take full advantage of the cloud as it matures.

Source